Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou

Phenomenal Woman

By Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size  

But when I start to tell them,

They think I’m telling lies.

I say,

It’s

in the reach of my arms,

The span of my hips,  

The stride of my step,  

The curl of my lips.  

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,  

That’s me.

I walk into a room

Just as cool as you please,  

And to a man,

The fellows stand or

Fall down on their knees.  

Then they swarm around me,

A hive of honey bees.  

I say,

It’s the fire in my eyes,  

And the flash of my teeth,  

The swing in my waist,  

And the joy in my feet.  

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered  

What they see in me.

They try so much

But they can’t touch

My inner mystery.

When I try to show them,  

They say they still can’t see.  

I say,

It’s in the arch of my back,  

The sun of my smile,

The ride of my breasts,

The grace of my style.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Now you understand

Just why my head’s not bowed.  

I don’t shout or jump about

Or have to talk real loud.  

When you see me passing,

It ought to make you proud.

I say,

It’s in the click of my heels,  

The bend of my hair,  

the palm of my hand,  

The need for my care.  

’Cause I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Poem 6

Sunday’s at Granny

I love Sunday’s at granny’s it is the best

 Granny gets up in the morning cooks but doesn’t rest

But before you go in to have a seat you smell:

Cabbage

And cornbread

And roast

 And steak

You hear people talking while sitting

Laughing

And smiling

Having a wonderful time

Granny makes the best food I’ve ever tasted

People come over to granny’s Sunday evening

And great conversation

Tasty food

You’ll never forget

What a Sunday you’ve had

That will always never be bad.

This poem is inspired by “Knoxville Tennessee” by Nikki Giovanni.

Poem 5

Florida Dreams

I want to go to Florida

Such great things I heard

Sunny skies,

Palm trees,

Shopping,

Fun in the sun with family

I want to go to Florida.

Disneyworld

“Where all your dreams come true”

Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Daffy

All the sites I want to see

I want to go to Florida.

This poem is inspired by “Trips” one of the chapters in Good Poems.

Poem 4

Such a Clutz

You know all those times you wanted to be cute,

Walking in your favorite heels

Twisting and turning

Telling yourself “Heel toe” “Heel toe”

Here comes that nice sweet young man you like

Your heart starts to pound “boom boom” “boom boom”

Then he starts to talk to you

Remember all those times you wanted to look good

Wells you messed just messed it up with your clumsy self.

This poem is inspired by Failure, one of the chapters of Good Poems.

Poem 3

A Changed Young Lady

There once was a girl who lied,

who listened to whatever she heard,

 who gossiped all the time,

 but there was one person who could get through to her

 the one who created the heavens and the earth,

 he changed her mind

he changed how she looked at thing

he changed the way she thought about herself

he is the way the truth and the life

The Almighty

God

This poem is inspired by God and the poem called “The Changed Man” a poem by Robert Phillips.

Poem 2

Old to New

Once there was,

“I love you just the way you are”

But now,

“Long hair, thick waist, cute face”

Once there was,

“Beautiful admirable charming lady”

But now,

“Steamy hot sexy whore”

Once there was,

Meaning, love happy careful melody

But now,

There is sex sorrowful and meaningless music.

This poem is inspired by “Ooly Pop a Cow” by David Huddle.

Poem 1

My Routine

When I wake up in the morning there are always things I must do:

A student, has to get up early in the morning jump in and out the shower, wash my face brush my teeth comb my hair all before the bus comes but there is always a voice saying

“Hurry up little girl your slow poking around.” So I try to hurry but I have to admire myself in the mirror one last time before I go out the door to catch the bus these are things I must do before I go.

This poem I wrote is inspired by the poem “Routine” by Arthur Guiterman.

Introduction

Introduction

Dear Readers,

My name is Malika Smith and I created this book. I am a freshman at the Carbondale Community High School. I am 15 years old. I am from Carbondale, Illinois. This poem book consists of six inspired poems. Most of the poems are inspired by poems out of the book Good Poems edited by Garrison Keillor. Also in this poem book is my favorite and least favorite poems that I wrote.

The poem I wrote that is my favorite is called “A Changed Young Lady.” This is my favorite because it talks about things that actually happen but then this amazing God comes into my life and changes me. This makes me so happy. The least favorite poem is “Florida Dreams.” This is my least favorite poem because I feel that a poem should come from experience and from the heart. This poem really did not come from my heart. I have not been anywhere really exciting to talk about so I just dreamed about where I want to go.

     What I have learned about poetry in this unit is that it helps people to share their emotions. If you don’t put your feelings into the poems then it’s probably not a good one. But those poems that don’t make you take a second look don’t mean it’s not a good poem. Also that poetry has no perfect shape or way it is supposed to be written. Every poet or person who writes a poem has their own way of expressing themselves. What I learned about myself as a poet is that I can write poetry if I really apply myself to the work it takes to do so. Also I learned that maybe one day I could learn to love to write. I hope that you enjoy this poetry book!

Table of Contents

Table of Content

Introduction………………….1

My Routine………...….2

Old to New………………..….3

A Changed Young Lady..4

Such a Clutz………………..…5

Florida Dreams...………6

Sunday’s at Granny’s...……….7

Phenomenal Woman by: Maya Angelou....8

Pretties

Pretties

I am reading a dystopian novel in class that is called “Pretties.” A dystopian society is an imagery place where everything is as bad as it can be. A girl named Tally has a dream of becoming a Pretty. A Pretty is a person that has surgery to the cities liking, to make them look gorgeous, popular and perfect and they are put into groups by what happened in their pasts. Tally is a “Crim.” Tally first had gotten caught trying to get the cure for being pretty-minded. Next she was threatened by Dr. Cable who had treated her into telling on her friends when she lived in the Smoke. Then her best friend had gotten mad at her. After that day, Zane and Tally had escaped the cuffs, from when they had gotten arrested, and there friends from the group, Peris and Fausto, had jumped out of the hot air balloons on to hoverboards. Fausto and Zane had jumped around the same time; Tally lost her best friend forever, Peris, who chickened out. When Tally jumped she jumped into a reservation where she couldn’t get of the land. On the land these people tried to kill her. Then when Specials visited the land she stole one of the hovercars’ and went to the ruins, which are just the woods. There she found out that Zane was sick and half of his brain was gone. Also she found out that the pill she took really did work it just gave her the placebo effect. Then they were caught by the Specials, this was because they had put a tracker in Zane’s tooth when he went to the hospital. So when they had gotten caught she found out that her best friend Shay was getting revenge on her for not sharing the cure with her, so she became a Special and now Tally had to become one as well.

An allegory is a story that symbolizes something else. The allegory that I think that is in this book says “Everyone in the world was programmed by the place they were born, hemmed in by their beliefs, but you at least have to grow your own brain. Otherwise you might as well be living on a reservation, worshipping a bunch of bogus gods.” (Westerfield 309) What this says to me is that if you don’t use your brain anybody could tell you anything. My Career Preparation teacher has told me, “If you find a fool bump once if you find a good fool bump twice.” This just simply mean use you head. The people that Tally met on her trip to the ruins lived on a reservation and they were worshiping the specials, which you could say that they were bogus gods.

An allusion is a reference to a well-known person place or thing or another work of literature. One allusion that is in the book says “And kisses are a better fate than wisdom.”(Westerfield Part II) This quote comes from E. E. Cummings “since feeling is first.” This allusion is in part II in the book. “It's better doing something on the spur of the moment than it is to being wise after the event.” (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091026162114AAvMo2v) This means that choose wisely what you do because it might seem right in the moment but in the long run is it going to benefit you? Tally chooses her boyfriend to take the cure with her instead of her best friend. In the end of this book it turns out that her best friend wants and gets revenge on her.

            Satire is the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule to expose something else in a work of literature. One satire that is on the back of the book is says “Now she would have to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and fighting for her life – Because the authorities don’t intend to let anyone with this information survive. One reason I think this is satirical is because instead of the authorities putting her in jail they would try to kill her because she knows too much. When people turn sixteen they get surgery and they’re memory is erased. But Tally figured out if she stayed bubble or exciting, she could escape being pretty-minded (Perfect mind good thoughts and no arguing). But the specials don’t want people to know that their minds have been erased and if tally knows then she could tell her friends and they could tell their friends. Another reason I think this is satirical because people don’t usually choose between fighting for what they know and fighting for their lives. People usually make decisions on what food to eat or what to wear. This is very ironic because these are kind of like to different subjects. But like that book says “If you don’t at least grow your own brain you might as well be living on a reservation worshiping a bunch of bogus god.” (Westerfield 309) Do you think that this is ironic?

Reflection

     In class on February 9, 2012, a social worker at Carbondale Community High School came in my English class and showed us a video called "Bullied." This video was about a gay boy named Jamie. Jamie was getting beat up and harassed because of this. He tried to kill himself by taking a whole bottle of pills. When he went to tell the principle, she told him she would handle the situation. She didn't handle it at all so; this abuse followed him to high school. But it got worse. It was so bad he ran away. But he only came back because his mom said he would be home schooled, but she couldn't afford it so he had to go back to Ashland High School. He told his mom that he would mom to the city of Minneapolis. Although she didn't want him to go, she wanted him to be safe. In Minneapolis he went to see a person that he could talk to about this situation. The person told him to sue to the school. Well, he did and he ended up getting $900,000 dollars. He had won the case. I think he did the right thing. This video made me tear up. I really don't like when someone is being hurt. I would have tried to help him. This story will always stay on my mind. This is an inspirational story.
http://www.tolerance.org/blog/bullying-civil-rights-issue

On the teaching tolerance website I found an article that talks about students that bully a person because of their race, national origin, sex, color, or disability, the staff are supposed to respond with the civil rights in mind. It also says, by law they are supposed to investigate and see to changing the hostile environment. The next paragraph talks about how half of the high school students who were surveyed on bulling had bullied someone in the past week. It ask questions such as "Does the school accept values and protect its student?" and "Does that message get transmitted from the top down, from the school board to administrators to teachers?" (http://www.tolerance.org/blog/bullying-civil-rights-issue) I feel that these questions are answer at my school. I feel like the teachers really care about the whole bullying activity. I feel that bullying should be looked into at every school. Do you think that bullying should be looked into? Why or Why not?

Tyler's Character

    
In the beginning of the book "Twisted", Tyler, main character, is in a state of mind where he thinks he's a loser. He feels that he is a nobody. He wants to kill himself. Tyler often thought of ways to kill himself. Tyler thinks he could just drown himself. He also thinks he could just hang himself. Tyler is a depressed person who loves to play video games. He can play video games for hours if people don't bother him. But his life all changed when he went to the dinner party with his father.

The day of the dinner party Bethany, the girl Tyler likes, gets pushed because of Chip, Bethany's brother and Tyler's enemy, and pushes Tyler into the waiter who has a tray full of glasses. The waiter drops the glasses and Bethany has no shoes on and she gets glass in her foot and goes to the hospital. Tyler regrets that he pushed her. He blames himself for everything. The next day his mom made him takes a cake over to the Milbury's House. When he takes the cake, her mom made him stay and talk to Bethany. He ended up really liking this so much that he did whatever she wanted him to do for her or with her. Then his life really changed when he went to the party that Bethany asked him to go to. After the party Tyler and Bethany grew apart. This is all because people were saying that he uploaded some pictures of Bethany to the Internet. Because of what was said Tyler had to stay in a "cell" room and do his work, people picked on him and beat him up. After Tyler was beaten up by Chip and his friends, he wanted to really comet suicide to himself. This made him really feel like a loser. What would you say to a person feeling like this?

Word Mosaic

    This tear drop says "I am a moron a loser-" Tyler. I Chose this as Tyler's best quote from the book he because I feel that he felt like a loser and a moron like he said in this quote. I chose a tear drop for this quote because it shows emotions. I got this quote from the book Twisted. I got this from chapter 12, page 37. This is the part in the book where Tyler's Mom told him to take the cake she made to the Milbury’s house. When Tyler took the cake to their house, he talked to Bethany, (but her mom made him stay.) Then they started to talk and he started to tell her he was so sorry for pushing her. Then he told her he was a moron and a loser. I think this quote describes how he feels around Bethany, the girl he likes.

This figure says "That depends. Do you want me to be sweet?" I thought this quote, from the book Twisted was the theme. This is because it says to me, don't be someone you’re not. Tyler said this to Bethany when they were at a party. Tyler is a sweet person that no one really wanted to talk to him until this he got arrested. But he likes Bethany so much that he is willing to change for her. So I say, don’t change the way you really are for a person that only likes you for what you did. What do you think about the issue of being yourself?

Sexual Harassment

     In the book "Twisted" the main character talks about a "clothing optional" day at school. Girls at his school, wear clothing that shows too much skin. Some girls get mad when boy stare at them or don't stare at them. Well I would stare but not because I would want to but because I believe they need more clothes on their bodies. In the picture to the left this girl is dressed for "clothing optional" day. Girls, who want to dress scantily, might dress like this. As you can see this girl is showing more leg. This girl will get more attention than the girl with clothes below her.

                              

     
This is how I would dress if I had to an optional day. This is because I like to wear clothes. This is one way that I express myself. Also, it’s another way I respect myself. If I don’t respect myself then who will? Boys cannot stay focus in classes if they have something better to look at besides the board. They will never learn with girls’ private parts hanging out all the time.
Sexual harassment cannot go both ways. This is because when you dress scantily, People will look at you, which means you wanted them to look at you. You can’t get mad because people only dress like that for two reasons. One reason is because; you want attention or two because you want to feel pretty. There is always at least one person that will like you for what you are wearing. This can lead to staring. But the person who wants to look pretty might not want people to stare but it’s going to happen. But what do you think about sexual harassment?